


Revolution

by orphan_account



Series: The Telepath's Immortal [15]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Episode: s01e11 Combat, Fluff, Hurt Owen Harper, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-15 20:41:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11813805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It was a slight, niggling irritation when Weevils started becoming harder to find.It was a shocking anger when they found out people were capturing Weevils themselves.It became a spell-bounding fury when the Torchwood team realized exactly what was going on behind the scenes of Mark Lynch's estate agency.Mixed with Owen's growing despair, the team's strangely different personalities all of a sudden and Jack and his' Bond, Ianto was all but ready to just give up.





	1. Alyssa and David, sitting in a tree...

**Author's Note:**

> this first chapter isn't as long as i'd have liked it to be, but it made sense for me to cut it off where i did
> 
> also, spooky times next chapter, gwen isn't horrible...? i'm setting up a massive character upheaval for her when episode 13's rewrite comes around. you may be surprised when some rather awful truths come to light, not just about gwen, but the entire team...MWAHAHAHA
> 
> yeah, anyways, i hope you enjoy this chapter, it's kinda boring but i just wanted to get it out of my system

Conversations drifted like cigarette smoke around the bar - it was late and the bar itself, although cosy and rather pleasant, wasn’t the most popular place for people who just wanted to get drunk. So, Ian to and his two companions were practically alone in their little corner illuminated by lanterns in mason jars. 

“This place reminds me of the herb storage back in Trinovantes,” Alyssa murmured softly, reaching out to brush her fingertips against the low hanging, fairy-light covered ferns dripping down to frame the seats. 

“Yes, but as far as I can remember, the ferns there glowed naturally, rather than with fairy lights,” David answered, adjusting his tortoiseshell glasses to peer at his friend. “It is a nice place, though. Thank you for bringing us, Ianto.”

“Anything for my favourite Gifteds,” the telepath chuckled, sipping at the drink David had given him. It was fruity and sweet. “Tell me, how have you been?”

Alyssa smiled benevolently. She and Ianto had been friends since university - once they’d both realised that they were Gifteds, they’d grown much closer, despite being from different clans. Alyssa was a Gifted from Trinovante, a clan in Eastern England, whilst Ianto was from Demetae, in Wales. The two tribes had been rivals for some time, but thankfully, his and Alyssa’s friendship had never wavered.

David, however, wasn’t from a different clan to Ianto. He was born in Demetae, but was the runt of his family. His telepathic abilities were weak and his magic practically non-existent - Ianto had befriended him rather quickly, although it was ill-advised seeing as he was one of the most powerful Gifteds of his generation and shouldn’t have typically been mixing with lower levelled telepaths. But, Ianto didn’t follow the traditions and ventured off with David to the fields and forests that bordered Llysfaen. David’s true skill was revealed when he tamed a wyvern that had been tormenting the clan.

“Well, David and I have moved in together,” Alyssa answered, grinning. David glanced down at the table, somewhat abashed. “It’s a lovely little place on the outskirts of Cardiff. We’re planning on raising some hens and maybe some sheep there.”

“I did explain to her that Eirian would probably just eat them all, but she’s insistent that we get them anyways,” David explained shyly, barking out a laugh as Alyssa playfully ruffled his dark curly hair. 

The blonde woman rolled her eyes at him. “You could just teach her not to eat them,” she whined, Ianto grinning as David continued to bicker quietly with her. He stood after a while, glancing towards the bar. 

“I’ll go get some more drinks,” he said, and left Alyssa and Ianto alone, disappearing into the small crowd at the bar inside before Ianto could demand that he pay for the drinks this time instead of David. 

“Tell me, Alyssa,” Ianto began, watching his friend carefully, “you and David have moved in together. You’ve dyed your hair blonde for him because he preferred it. Even his wyvern adores you. So, when is one of you going to bite the bullet and just start dating already?”

Alyssa sighed, dropping her head onto the sticky table below her. “I don’t know.” Her head lifted up again, chin resting on her ringed fingers. Her lips, painted a deep purple, were turned down at the corners. Ianto felt guilty all of a sudden for dampening the mood, unsure of how to comfort the other elemental.

“Isn’t it funny that I’m more nervous in this situation than he ever has been? I mean, he’s been flirting with me, for goodness’ sake, but I just can’t seem to work up the nerve to actually ask him out...do you think it’s at all because of our Tints?”

A Tint, in Gifted terms, tended to refer to the colour of one’s runes in their Gifted form. Ianto had a sapphire Tint - one of the rarest and also the Tint belonging to the majority of great and powerful telepaths. Alyssa’s Tint was opal, milky white and flecked with iridescent shimmers. It was the Tint that was usually only gained after a Gifted became a mother because of how tender and lax the energy was, but Alyssa was born with it.

David’s Tint, however, was ruby. It came with a dangerous energy, a malicious, dark force behind it. It clashed with every other elemental power - it was destruction and so it was strange to see such a shy man hold it in his grasp.

“His Tint doesn’t matter. I admit, opal and ruby Tints probably are the worst combination, but that makes no difference because you and David are the perfect match. Besides, his main skill is that he can talk to mythical animals, how evil do you think he can be?” Ianto answered, disgraced by the idea that David could be anything but an adorably anxious puppy. Alyssa smiled.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Alyssa said, seemingly more jovial now. “How about you, then? How’s your love life?”

David chose that moment to reappear with an armful of drinks. “What about who’s love life? Does Ianto have a partner?” he asked brightly, setting the drinks down. Ianto grumbled under his breath.

“Yes. I think. His name’s Jack...and he’s my boss.” Silence fell on the table before it was filled with uproarious laughter from the pair of Gifted across from Ianto. 

“Oh Lord, Ianto. All those times you told me to not date my co-workers, all those times you said they were just in it for kicks, and then you go and start fucking your boss! You’re such a hypocrite,” Alyssa giggled, a lot less offended than her words suggested. Blushing, Ianto glanced at the both of them. 

“It’s not like that. It’s not just sex. I really do like him, you know, and I think he likes me too.”

“Are you in love with him?” David asked quietly, shooting a glance over at Alyssa discreetly. Ianto stared at the drink in his hand for a moment before nodding silently. “Then I support you 100%. When are we meeting this guy?”

“Oh, and are you Bonded yet?” Alyssa added, lips curling around the rim of her glass. There was a mischievous look in her green gaze, but Ianto ignored it.

“We were. And then I kinda broke it,” he murmured, wincing at Alyssa’s sharp gasp. “I know, I was an idiot, but we are trying to get it back, it’s practically already back-”

“No, not that! I mean, I’m glad you’re working towards the Bond, but-”

“There’s a man with a bloody shirt running up to us,” David finished for her, glancing warily behind Ianto at the dark street. Ianto felt the familiar buzz of Jack’s mind nearing his own, static electricity racing up his spine only to fizzle out at the base of his skull. 

“Er...you might be meeting Jack sooner than I thought you’d be,” Ianto said, standing abruptly and turning on his heel only to be met by the sight of Jack’s ripped shirt and bloodied chest. The three long Weevil scratches would probably heal in a few minutes for Jack, but it didn’t make Ianto any less concerned. 

“Jack! God, I’ve told you a million times not to flirt with the Weevils, they’re all so obviously aromantic.”

Jack only laughed, swooping in for a chaste kiss that Ianto wasn’t expecting. “Sorry, you two, I really have to borrow him,” Jack smiled at Alyssa and David, placing a rather possessive hand on the small of Ianto’s back. 

“Er, guys, this is Jack. My boss,” Ianto tried to explain, nervous about the way Alyssa smirked at the display of affection between the pair. 

“Your boss? Like, your boss boss?” David asked timidly, a little off put considering the rivulets of blood running down Jack’s shirt. Ianto could tell from the way Jack’s fingers tapped restlessly against his spine that all the immortal wanted to do was leave to catch the Weevil he’d let get away. For all his bravado, Jack knew he was at his best when he had someone to help him.

“What poor, sexually-repressed David means is, is this guy you’re shagging?” Alyssa reiterated, looking perfectly happy to continue to talk to Jack despite the less than kind stares the group were receiving. 

“I- er, kind of. I mean-”

“I’m Ianto’s boyfriend,” Jack said, a little forcefully. The word ‘boyfriend’ hung crisply in the air, making Ianto’s head spin. They were boyfriends? Not that Ianto was complaining…

“Off you go then. Wouldn’t want to keep you waiting,” Alyssa purred, wrapping an arm around David and pulling Ianto out of his thoughts. “We’ll get going too. See you soon, Ianto.” There was a knowing look in David’s puppy dog gaze, but Ianto forgot about it as Jack turned him around, grabbing him by the hand and starting to run.

Ianto stumbled for a second, before gathering his bearings. Slowing for a moment after a short moment of running, Jack glanced down at his Manipulator, trying to follow the speck on the interface that showed the location of the Weevil. “So, good first impression on your friends?”

 

“Well, screaming in your mind at me about the Weevil you were chasing was probably a shock to them, to be perfectly honest,” Ianto giggled, letting go of Jack’s hand to run it lightly across the healing cuts in Jack’s chest. When Jack didn’t wince or make any move to suggest he was in pain, Ianto smiled softly.

“They’re Gifted?” Jack asked, bewildered for a moment that Ianto was being so very honest before grinning fondly as Ianto nodded. “Sorry for cutting in, by the way. I’ve been having trouble with this one.”

“Don’t worry. We’re meeting up again in a couple days, Rift permitting.”

Jack was about to say something else when the tracer on his Manipulator beeped. He looked down for a second before he was running again, Ianto following without even listening to what he was saying. He trusted Jack to lead him the right direction.

They spotted the Weevil on the third level. “Jack!” Ianto hissed to his - well, his boyfriend - who hunkered down behind him, peering over his shoulder and around a pillar as the Weevil came into view. 

“Okay, you spray it and I’ll cuff it,” Jack murmured softly, allowing Ianto a moment to register everything before he was ducking out of their makeshift hideout and racing towards the Weevil.

Then, everything happened in a blur. There was a squealing of tires and Jack shouting in alarm as a white van with a blue logo sped up to the Weevil and two men jumped out of the back. They had electrical prods and black ski masks and worked with aggressive efficiency as they surrounded the Weevil. The creature let out a tortured screech as it was herded into the back of the van.

“Hey!” Jack shouted, and then everything resumed to normal speed, Ianto stumbling to a halt beside his captain. The man in front of them only grinned menacingly before jumping into the van. It sped off with the same sound of old tires on pavement, disappearing from view as it drove away from the car park.

“Who the hell were they?”

-

“One; since when did other people know about Weevils? Two; have they done this before and if so how come didn't we know about it? Three; what do they want with them anyway?” Jack mused aloud, adjusting the straps of his suspenders as he spoke. Ianto was flipping through some files in his hands, Tosh reading them from over his shoulder. 

“Might not be connected, but we've noticed a surge of unusual injuries being reported at the A&E unit,” Ianto said, handing Jack the file. 

“Chunks taken out of legs and arms. Deep wounds to backs and stomachs,” Jack read out, sighing. Ianto hated to have brought his mood down even more, but Jack had to know. “So, we have a wave of Weevil attacks to add to our problems. Oh,” he turned to look at Tosh, “and by the way, that spray we've used on them previously? Looks like they're becoming immune to it.” Jack strode over to his desk, grabbing the phone from its receiver and dialling an all too familiar number. 

“They’re mutating?” Tosh asked, sounding morbidly interested all of a sudden.

“Or evolving,” Ianto added, remembering how the rabbits in the fields around Llysfaen had evolved to learn to camouflage themselves with natural magic so that they wouldn’t be eaten by the wyvern there. 

Jack hummed in assent, glancing up at Ianto. “So, any sign of the one we lost earlier?” 

“I've run a trace on the van's number plate. It's fake. Two and a half thousand vans of that type registered in the Cardiff area. Widen that to a forty mile radius and the number doubles,” Tosh rattled off, blushing slightly at how intently Jack was listening. Ianto turned around from his board of gruesome injuries from the A&E to watch the exchange. 

“Run a trace on the vehicle-”

“Route via traffic cams?” Tosh finished for Jack, smiling lightly. As if she wouldn’t already have three different traces already on the go. “Processing that now,” she reassured, before strolling off back to her computer to check on her progress. 

Jack sighed after a second or two of being on the phone, setting it aside noisily. “Owen still won’t answer his phone,” he sighed, moving over to where Ianto was standing to wrap his arms around the telepath’s middle. It was becoming easier for the both of them to accept the rather domestic contact, comforted by the way they fit together. “Do you think he’s alright?”

“If anything was seriously wrong, I’d know about it, Jack,” Ianto said, hugging Jack closer. “It’s just that this thing with Diane, he really opened his heart up for it, let himself be vulnerable for the first time after Katie. And Diane kinda just shot him down.”

“They wouldn’t have worked anyways, I don’t think,” Jack muttered darkly, gripping Ianto’s waist tight. Admittedly, he was angry at Owen for making such a massive deal about his week-long fuckbuddy that he barely even knew. 

“No, they probably wouldn’t have. Diane was too much of a free spirit to want to be tied down by a man and Owen was - and is - far too emotionally unstable to even attempt a healthy relationship right now. But, when he does come in, be gentle with him. He might not have loved Diane in the way he thought he did, but he did open up to her. It wasn’t just a fling.”

Jack murmured incoherently against the side of Ianto’s neck before pressing a kiss there and pulling away. “When did you become so wise?”

“You mean you never noticed it before?” Ianto joked lightly, smiling as Jack’s mood appeared to lighten. The grin dropped from his face as a small, almost unnoticeable wave of grief washed over him, mingling with pinpricks of pain in his temples. 

“I’ve gotta go check on something, but I’ll be right back,” he murmured to his lover, slipping out of his embrace. Mildly confused, Jack watched him go, the elemental’s strides purposeful as he rounded the corner leading to the vaults. To the Weevils. 

Around ten minutes later, Ianto called him down there, a small brush of their minds together that urged Jack to join his partner. When he arrived, sliding smoothly down the vault’s ladder, Ianto was standing in front of a Weevil cage, eyebrows furrowed in concern as it cried a low, tenuous sound, riddled with despair.

“Ianto? What’s going on?”

 

“Started a while ago. I just felt her pain, needed to come down and check on her,” Ianto mumbled, eyes not straying from the Weevil in front of him.

 

“So, Owen’s right?” Jack questioned in a whisper. 

“What do you mean?” 

“He thinks that Weevil’s have low levels of telepathy. Can feel emotions across long distances,” Jack explained, patting Ianto’s shoulder comfortingly when he winced at a particularly agonised cry from the creature. 

“Alyssa, David and I - David especially - we’ve all been feeling things like this for weeks. I assumed that it was coming from the Weevils, but it didn’t make much sense at the time. Weevils only communicate with their own kind telepathically, like the Ood, but it always felt like they were reaching out to us, asking for help,” Ianto rambled, leaning slightly into Jack’s touch.

“I didn’t tell you, before you ask, because we weren’t exactly on speaking terms at the time,” Ianto added, sensing Jack’s oncoming question.

“It’s okay. I understand. I just wish you’d mentioned sooner that you were all in pain because of this. Gives us even more of an incentive to find whoever’s capturing these Weevils.”

“But they’re not just kidnapping them. They’re causing them pain, Jack,” Ianto whispered somewhat desperately. He’d always felt some sort of connection to the Weevils given the telepathic aspect of the creatures' minds, but he’d have felt just as desperate to help something he didn’t know that was so defenceless. 

“Could you talk to her telepathically somehow? Find out if it knows anything?” Jack asked all of a sudden after a few moments of watching the growingly silent Weevil.

“I wouldn’t want to overwhelm her. She could potentially go insane if I tried to speak with her. Their minds aren’t set up to deal with the stresses of Links, or even a Line.”

Jack made a pained noise in the back of his throat. It was one thing for people to be kidnapping Weevils, but possibly even going as far to torture them...Jack felt like he was going to throw up.

“Let’s go check up on Toshiko’s progress with the van’s route. There’s no use staying down here, it’ll only make you more upset,” Jack pressed when Ianto seemed happy enough to just stay, staring soulfully at his new Weevil buddy. 

Ianto let himself be guided away with a caring but strong hand, and soon the pair were back in the main Hub, watching CCTV camera footage of the men that had stolen the Weevil. “I've tracked the van's route. It went straight from the car park out to the docks. This was two hours ago,” Toshiko explained, playing with something on her keyboard for a second before the footage popped up on her computer screen. 

They all watched silently, on the edges of their metaphorical seats, impatient to see the state of the Weevil. But then, as the van door was slid open by a man having retreated from the driver’s seat, the camera footage fizzled to static. 

“What happened?” Jack asked impatiently, only feeling slightly sorry in amidst his irritation when he saw Tosh wince slightly. 

“The CCTV cameras went down.”

“Do you think it was deliberate?” Gwen asked, tone soft. It was clear she had been crying not too long ago. Ianto felt a pang in his chest at the sound of her small sniffle, unsure of why he felt the urge to comfort the woman. 

“I think these guys really don’t like to be watched,” Tosh mused, leaning back in her chair. 

“See, I know it's a character flaw, but that makes me all the more determined to find out what it is they're hiding.”


	2. Confusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ........
> 
> so, long time no see, right?
> 
> i do apologize for not having this chapter out sooner, i came down with some pretty bad bronchitis and was pretty much delirious and brain dead for the past five days. it was verging on me having to go to a & e when my fever hit 39 degrees celcius, but my fever broke a few days ago and i'm slowly getting better.
> 
> this chapter is also super short, but i'd like to think the next one will probably be the second last. this fic is almost over (and with it, comes more angst and also cameos from all the favourite gifteds, you guys aren't ready for the next few fics i sweeeaaarrr)

Admittedly, Ianto had been a little disgruntled to have been stuck in the Hub with only Myfawny and Gwen for company. But, Tosh and Jack had headed to investigate the warehouse in the docks and Ianto had his own job to do, so there was no other option. 

Saying that, when Ianto buried himself in his work, he didn’t even notice Gwen as she milled around the Hub, chewing on her fingernails and wearing away the soles of her shoes as she paced. 

“Do you think they’re okay?” she asked suddenly, about half an hour after Toshiko and Ianto had drove off. 

“Hmm?” Ianto murmured, glancing away from work for a second. “Tosh and Jack? If you’re that worried about it, I can check in on them telepathically.”

He paused for a moment, grinning humorlessly. Gwen wasn’t exactly the loveliest when Ianto talked about his Gift, but Ianto had long since stopped caring when he had been given so much support from his friends and lover. 

“That is, unless you think I’m going to end up manipulating people,” he muttered, turning back to his computer. 

“No, you’re not that type of person,” Gwen sighed, collapsing into the chair besides Ianto. The elemental was silent for a long, dragging moment, thoughts flicking through his mind like wildfire as he watched Gwen. 

“You seem to have changed your opinion quite drastically on me,” he said, voice cracking slightly on his last words. 

Gwen’s eyebrows pulled down her forehead in confusion. She didn’t see to be faking her bewilderment and Ianto leant forward in his chair to try and grab her attention, concerned with how silent she was. As he was about to say something, his mobile rang. 

The phone number wasn’t one that Ianto recognised, but he answered anyways, pleased to hear Jack’s voice on the other end of the line. “Ianto, I need you to trace all calls to and from this number in the last twenty four hours, fast as you can. We're on our way back.”

“Whoa, whoa! Slow down, what did you find, are you both okay?” Ianto asked quickly, worried that Jack would hang up before he could get anything out of his captain. He glanced to his side, where Gwen had been sitting a second ago, only to find an empty chair. Gwen was just gone, and Ianto wasn’t sure if he was worried or not. 

“Sorry, yeah. We’re both okay,” Jack replied - Ianto could practically hear him deflating, stress melting from his mind. There was the sound of a car door shutting and the rumble of an engine from over the phone. 

“We found a body. Dead one, that is. This phone is his, which is admittedly a bit unsettling,” Jack sighed and then the line cut out and Ianto’s comms crackled to life. Ianto hadn’t even realised he’d kept his earpiece on. Then again, he’d been awake since the previous morning, like Jack, and was practically falling asleep at his desk. 

“Sorry, there was blood on the phone and I’m getting fingerprints all over it,” Jack said over the comm line. It was surprising for him to sound so disgusted at the sight of blood. 

“Who rang you? At least, I’m assuming someone rang you considering you asked me to trace the calls,” Ianto questioned, fidgeting with sleeves of his shirt for lack of anything else to do. 

“I don’t know, which is the issue. He threatened me, or at least tried to. Most likely, he’s the man who is in charge of this whole Weevil kidnapping business.”

“You think it’s an entire business?” Ianto asked, back straightening in his chair. He despised the idea that there could be more than just a few Weevils kidnapped. 

“I’d say so. It just seems so organised. Look, I’ll see you when we get back - make sure you trace those calls. And I wouldn’t talk to Owen if he comes in,” Jack said quickly, not waiting for Ianto to reply before he was cutting out his end of the comm. 

Ianto didn’t wait for the shock of Jack hanging up to hit him before he was in the middle of tracing the calls of his last accessed number. Both Jack and Gwen seemed to be acting strange, and Owen too for that matter, but Ianto had a job to be done. He could worry about his own life when this mess was finished with.

Not twenty minutes later, a body was in the autopsy bay, Owen was finally in the Hub, and Ianto was no closer to finding out who in the hell was taking Weevils off the streets. 

“Dan Hodges. Date of birth; twenty first of January 1979. Salesman for web publishing software. Looks like he was married with a kid,” Gwen explained, showing the team a picture of Hodges with a young brunette woman and a child only about six or seven years of age - old enough to know and love his father, but not too old to hold any resentment for him. 

“Yeah? No shit, Sherlock,” Owen muttered darkly, grabbing Hodges’ hand to show a wedding ring. He dropped the limp limb to the gurney again, glancing over the body with a critical gaze. 

“Right; definitely death by Weevil, but he took a right kicking before the throat was punctured,” Owen analyzed, gesturing to the corpse. Jack followed his gaze with a careful stare, eyes narrowed. Owen had been closed off since he’d come in - the only person he’d been fair to so far was Toshiko.

“Weevils go for the kill, straight for the jugular. Look at his face. Black eye, bruises to the cheekbones. Same across the back and the ribs.”

“Could he have been tortured?” Toshiko asked, folding her arms as she watched Owen worked. The medic looked up at her with a softer gaze than what he was using for the rest of the team, and the body on his autopsy table. 

“Maybe, but I reckon these wounds were inflicted by humans. But why smack somebody about and then set the Weevil on them? Why not get the Weevil do all the work for you?”

It was at that moment that Ianto chose to appear, long gait crossing from his desk to Owen’s bay in a short moment. Hodges’ phone was in his loose grip - Jack had given it to him to help him try and find who had been calling, but it hadn’t given him any advantage.

“Any joy with the phone records?” he asked, striding up the stairs to meet Ianto. There was a warmth throughout their Bond, a little disjointed considering how broken it was - not to mention the fact that Jack was so touch-starved and almost possessive as of late.

“The last incoming number was blocked, and the phone's entire call history has been erased,” Ianto murmured quietly, shifting a little uncomfortably under Jack’s intense gaze. He wasn’t used to feeling so shy around his boyfriend, but suddenly everything was too much too soon. 

“God, they move fast,” Tosh breathed. 

“You ask me,” Jack said, moving away from Ianto, allowing the telepath to breathe again, “these guys are using Weevils to carry out the perfect murder. No fingerprints, no traces of recognisable DNA, a quick, guaranteed death. Nothing to connect anyone to the murder.”

“Right. Should be a piece of piss to find the killer, then,” Owen grunted, leaning heavily against the wall. 

“What about this guy?” Gwen asked, pointing to Hodges’, lying pale and breathless and very much dead on the gurney. “Someone's got to break it to his wife that he's dead.” Her voice was soft and surprisingly pleasant. She didn’t sound like how she usually did - she sounded genuine, for once. 

“What about you?” Ianto asked, smiling when Gwen sighed but nodded. 

“Owen, join her,” Jack ordered, tone short and clipped. Owen bristled but didn’t argue, knowing he’d already gone too far with how he’d acted with his entire team. “Ianto, in my office,” he then said, once Gwen and Owen had gathered their wits and departed for the car park.

Ianto felt something shift in Jack’s mind, a flicker of concern or fear, but it was gone a second later. The telepath didn’t dwell on it, cautiously following Jack to his office - his lover hadn’t been acting like himself. In fact, no-one on the team had, besides himself and Toshiko. 

The door clicked as Jack shut it, startling Ianto out of his reverie. He was about to ask Jack something, he was sure he was, but then his mind went blank as his back hit the wall and his mouth was attacked by a warm, familiar pair of lips. 

The kiss was fast and messy and when Jack pulled back it was only to continue to press kisses to Ianto’s neck, nipping the sensitive places that he knew of. “J-Jack? Not that I’m not-” Ianto’s voice cut off into a whimper as Jack found a particularly responsive part of flesh just behind his ear and bit down, hard. “Not that I’m not enjoying this,” he tried again,” but I’m just wondering what brought it on?”

“I didn’t like the way he was looking at you,” Jack muttered darkly, pulling back after he finished sucking a dark bruise into the skin of Ianto’s neck. It was a clearly possessive gesture, but it wasn’t the only thing that was worrying Ianto. Jack’s eyes were glazed and unfocused. He definitely wasn’t himself.

“Who?”

“Owen. He was looking at you as if you were a piece of meat,” Jack hissed, voice edging on a snarl as his hands, previously having rested on Ianto’s waist, dipped lower. Ianto tried to push his away, confused and anxious, but Jack didn’t budge. He was quite effectively trapped between the wall and his boyfriend’s body. 

“Jack, stop,” he mumbled, trying desperately to twist out of Jack’s iron grip. The only thing it served to do was jostle the captain a bit, pausing his efforts to mark Ianto up as much as possible. “I don’t want this-”

“But you’d want it with Owen, hmm? I bet you’d spread your legs for him if he asked you to. You’d drop to your knees for him in an instant,” Jack growled, pushing away from Ianto. There was a dark fire in his gaze, one that Ianto couldn’t trust. Tears prickled at the elemental’s eyes, but he held them back. 

“I don’t know what the hell is going on with you,” he said, voice weak and verging on a sob,” but I don’t want to be anywhere near you until you sort it out. Sir,” he finished coldly, shifting past his captain and trying without much luck not to touch him. A hand shot out to stop his progress. “Don’t fucking touch me!” Ianto snapped, flinching away from Jack’s palm. There was something there, in Jack’s stare, something pained and panicked, but Ianto didn’t stay to figure out why it was there. 

Walking out of Jack’s office and into the main Hub was like a breath of fresh air. 

It allowed Ianto some time to think. He knew that something wasn’t right in Torchwood, in his team. Owen shouldn’t have been so upset about Diane’s absence, Gwen was acting as if she was a completely different person, and Jack…

Whatever was going on, it was tearing the team apart. They were weak. And that was terrifying.

-

Around an hour later, Owen trudged into the Hub, his expression stormy. “Where the hell have you been?” Jack asked, folding his arms tight across his chest. He was restless and nervous, Ianto could tell. It was difficult to remind himself that Ianto should keep his distance for now, for the sake of the Bond, when all he wanted to do was comfort his partner. 

“Walking.”

“Well,” Jack replied, “in your absence, Toshiko's had a great idea.” The young tech smiled at Jack’s praise, teeth wide and white. Owen didn’t smile back.

“Had to happen sooner or later,” Owen muttered, oblivious as he turned away to Tosh’s flinch. THe tension was thick in the air. “Ignore him, Tosh,” Gwen barked, glare honing in on Owen’s tense back. Something had obviously gone on between them, but Ianto didn’t care enough to ask about it. 

“Yeah, just ignore me, Tosh. I can be such a wanker. Apparently.”

Toshiko didn’t react to Owen’s hostility, smiling in an almost smug sort of way as she ignored his irritation. “The van went from kidnapping the Weevil straight to the warehouse. They must've known it was empty.”

Toshiko had mentioned this to Jack and Ianto before Gwen and Owen had returned to the Hub, but Ianto wasn’t all too sure where she was going with it considering he’d fled, for lack of a better word, when Jack had walked into the room. Tosh, bless her soul, hadn’t mentioned the obvious discomfort. 

“So either they own it or they had previous contact with the estate agents,” Gwen murmured. If nothing else, she had a quick mind. It was becoming increasingly obvious what the plan was that Tosh and Jack had orchestrated. 

“Owen Harper, you're going into property. Toshiko's in the middle of fixing you a cover story,” Jack smirked, his joy at Owen’s dismay so apparently fake. 

“Hang on, why me?”

“Jack and Ianto were in the car park, I was in the warehouse. If they've got access to CCTV, they'll recognise us,” Toshiko answered, not missing a beat.

“We have to get under their guard, find out what's going on,” Jack said, trying to sway his medic. He could quite easily order Owen to accept, but he figured he wouldn’t help his reputation much if he forced someone else to do something for him…

“Yeah, all right,” Owen sighed finally. “I could do with being someone else right now.”

It was concerning, really, that Jack was thinking the exact same.


	3. #Deep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is suuuuuppper short, but i don't really have anything else to write for this fic. the next one will show ianto visiting his clan (and also i can finally bring in a character i've been wanting to for as long as this series has been going on!!)
> 
> any guesses as to who it is?

“Yeah...alright. Thanks, Alyssa,” Ianto said, sighing in relief as Alyssa hung up. Talking to his friend had taken a huge weight off his shoulders - she and David were already working on theories to explain Jack, Owen and Gwen’s strange behaviour. They had all assumed it was something to do with a Gifted, someone manipulating the team’s minds, finding their weakest points and taking advantage of them. 

They didn’t know how long it had been going on for, and it was terrifying to think that the people Ianto had grown to love weren’t actually those people. Who knew how much they had changed as their minds were twisted?

Aside from telling Alyssa an abridged version of everything that had been going on in the Hub, their phone conversation had resulted in Alyssa relaying information from David; he’d found a case of someone who’d been attacked by a Weevil, someone who, although undergoing extensive surgery, was still alive. 

He would have to be interrogated, which meant Ianto had to tell Jack. 

The immortal was pacing frantically in his office when Ianto arrived. Owen was on his way to Mark Lynch’s office, in the centre of town, with Tosh carefully monitoring his position. Gwen was nowhere to be found, which Ianto was sure did wonders for Toshiko’s concentration. 

“...Jack?” It was hard to look at Jack and not think about the way he’d degraded the telepath, but Ianto managed, repeating like a mantra in his head that it hadn’t been Jack, that he was being forced into certain actions. Jack, his Jack, would have never said or done the things that he had that morning. 

“Ianto,” Jack sighed, breath expelling with a tinge of obvious reprieve. “I’m-”

“Before you say anything,” Ianto interrupted, knowing that Jack would go into a long rambling rant about how sorry and upset and baffled he was by what he assumed were his own actions, “I understand that you’re a little confused. I can’t pretend I’m not either.”

“I...I never meant to say those things. I don’t know what came over me,” Jack said, swallowing thickly. “I know you’d never go behind my back, so I had no reason to be jealous of you and Owen, or to be so possessive…” His voice trailed off. 

“There’s nothing to forgive, Jack,” Ianto begun, heart tightening in his chest at the bewilderedly hopeful look on his partner’s face. “I can’t say much. About what I think is happening, I mean, because I don’t want to put you in any danger. I just want you to know that I don’t hold any resentment towards you.”

“You...are we being controlled? Is that what you think is happening?” Jack asked suddenly. He cottoned on quickly. Usually his intuition would have been extremely welcome, but Ianto wasn’t sure if whoever was using his team could hear their verbal conversations. 

Well, if they were a Gifted, they would only be able to listen in on telepathic words spoken, wouldn’t they? At least, that’s how it had always worked for every other Gifted…

“Yes,” Ianto murmured, deciding to take the chance. Whoever was manipulating Torchwood still needed them for something - they (hopefully) wouldn’t be put in any danger, even if the Gifted knew they were all onto them. “I think that a rogue Gifted is somehow making us all do or say things that we shouldn’t or wouldn’t do or say.”

“Fuck...How long do you think it’s been going on for?” Jack’s expression betrayed his fear and concern. He sat heavily in his desk chair. 

“No idea. It could be for a few days, it could be for a few months. I would assume it would only have started, at the earliest, when I started using my abilities in front of the entire team,” Ianto replied, biting back a small sound of anxiety when he saw Jack flinch. 

“Have you told the others?”

“It’s your call. And, I...I think we should stop utilising our Bond. It’s a vulnerability at the moment and something a rogue Gifted to...hook onto, for lack of a better term. They’d know how we felt, what we were thinking. It could end up seriously hurting the team,” Ianto said with some difficulty. The Bond was so important to him and Jack - he didn’t ever want to think it could damage the people that he loved.

Jack appeared surprisingly calm, his tight lips the only thing that showed his dysphoria. It almost pained Ianto to see him so outwardly unaffected, but a huge wave of anger and fear crashed over him at the thought - Jack, however subconscious the action was, was sharing his grief with Ianto. 

“That time, after the fairies…” Jack mumbled, obviously having felt Ianto’s desperate response to his pain, “when you shut off our Link. Is that possible with a Bond? Not that I want it,” he added quickly. 

“No, I understand. It’s a good idea, but it takes a lot more power and planning. I’d have to ask my clan elders.”

“We could come with you, if you’d like. To Demetae,” Jack offered, but Ianto could tell from the resigned set of his shoulders that he already knew the answer.

“They would be able to sense the challenged Bond between us. It’s not kosher to Bond without a proper ceremony and the state of our Bond would make my clan like you even less. Plus, you need to stay here, for the team. We can’t lose our leader at a time like this.”

“I don’t know if I want you alone there,” Jack said slowly, appearing to have mulled the words over in his mind a lot for fear of offending Ianto. The telepath smiled gently, reassuringly. 

“You think that there could be a traitor in my clan?” Jack nodded. “Well, so do I. I never trusted the majority of those people, it’s why I was barely there during lessons. I’m going to our leader, she’s the one who taught me to control my Gift, and the one who introduced me to society in the human world. We can trust her, I promise.”

“But-”

“I’ll take David with me,” Ianto compromised. “ALyssa’s part of a separate clan, so she isn’t welcome.”

“I can settle with that, I guess. When are you leaving?” Jack asked, worry still tinging the edges of his voice. He was staring at a spot just below Ianto’s ear. The elemental jerked around, only to see his Linkmate, Tosh, staring at a photograph in her hands. It was framed, in dark wood - Ianto knew Toshiko only rarely got it out. 

“It’s a picture of her mother and father. She hasn’t looked at it in almost a year,” Ianto murmured under his breath.

“What? Why?”

“Because she only ever looks at it to remind herself of her failures. You know what happened to her mother. She still blames herself, but she’s been getting better...I wonder what set her back?” Ianto pondered allowed, stepping back slightly when he felt Jack’s heat shadowing his back.

The immortal didn’t seem to have expected the contact, but Ianto revelled in the easiness and the comfort of it for a few seconds before breaking away. “Toshiko always did have strong mental defences. Even more so now that she communicates so much with me telepathically.”

“You think that this rogue Gifted hasn’t been able to break through her mental walls until now? Why didn’t-” 

“If we didn’t have such a weak Bond, they wouldn’t have been able to have gotten through your walls. But as I said, it’s a vulnerability. This Gifted took advantage of that weakness. But that stops now,” Ianto said, voice hard and dark.

“If Toshiko is being manipulated like we think she is, then this is spreading much quicker than I had at first anticipated. I trust you can finish this case off yourself?” Ianto asked, words louder now. There was a niggling thought in the back of his mind, telling him that he should stay and support his team, but he pushed it away. 

“You’re not staying?” Jack asked incredulously.

“No.”

A look of disbelief crossed Jack’s face, but it was gone in a moment. He was still guilty about the incident that morning, Ianto imagined, which made it so much easier to get what he wanted. “I don’t want to waste any more time, is what I mean,” he rectified, pleased when Jack’s face cleared of the strange, twisted look it had turned to for a split second.

“You’d better get going then...you will tell me, won’t you, when you come back?” he questioned, licking his lips nervously. The was a wild, erratic look in his gaze. 

“Of course I will,” Ianto said softly, leaning up to kiss Jack soundly. “You’ll know as soon as I get back.”

Jack didn’t seem convinced, but only nodded, pressing back into the kiss, as if he had forgotten how to do anything else. Ianto reached up to cup his face with his hand, stroking softly. “You’re so important to me, do you understand?” he whispered when they finally parted. Jack didn’t speak. 

“I’m going to gather some of my things and then David. I’m not sure how long I’ll be away for.”

Resting his forehead against Ianto’s, Jack sighed, hands finding a place at Ianto’s waist. “How can I do this without you? How can I make sure I’m not putting people in danger because I can’t even control my own mind?”

“Because you’re strong, Jack. You can do this, alright?” 

“I don’t want to hurt you…” Jack whispered, breath puffing out over Ianto’s pursed lips. Ianto kissed him again, gentle and soothing. Jack’s eyes fluttered closed at the first contact and he didn’t open them for a long moment after Ianto had pulled away.

“You can do this,” he repeated. “I have to go. I’ll be back in a few days, at the very most.” It would have been so easy to tell Jack exactly how he felt, but it wasn’t a good time. Not with Jack so insecure and broken inside. 

With that, he turned on his heel, barely aware as he left the Hub behind him.


End file.
